Worker Killed By Roll of Newsprint at Inquirer Plant
The accident happened in a loading dock area in the rear of the facility.
Newsprint rolls like these, seen at the printing press of a Kentucky newspaper in 2010, weigh hundreds of pounds.
Kelly Teague (Creative Commons)
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A 43-year-old Delaware man was killed Friday morning at the Upper Merion printing facility of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, WCAU-TV reports.
Jefferson Troester was crushed beneath a 1,500-pound roll of newsprint that fell out of a railroad boxcar when the door was opened at about 9:30 a.m., police said. He worked for ArcelorMittal, a steel and mining company.
Contractors had to be brought in to free Troester's body from beneath the roll of paper.
The facility is located on Route 23, a few hundred feet from the West Conshohocken municipal boundary.
Fred Martinez
11:31 pm on Monday, December 3, 2012
It is such a tragedy that this accident happened. In many printing companies, papers are known to come in huge rolls. Most of the papers are left in upright position to prevent movements. Extra precaution is needed when handling these paper rolls especially when transferring them into the machine for printing. Many printing plant has tried to reduce the risk of accidents by eliminating human interference in most of the printing process. However, human labor is still required in some process. I believe accident risk can be further lowered if safety workshop is held on a regular basis so as to remind workers about job safety. http://www.intellprinting.com